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 Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2010 10:20 am
  Noelle & Dash
As they got back to the island, soaking wet, the pearls popped out of their mouths and after a fit of coughing, they could breathe air once again. Dash started to tear up again as he remembered how big the thing he had to swallow was. "Huh. I kinda miss being in the water." Noelle said quietly to herself.
The Jynx client ran up to them shortly after they had arrived on the island and tossed a bag of rewards to them, but it landed over Dash and he started wailing. No one really minded him. The Jynx didn't really thank them for helping her, but they did get a bag of rewards. As Noelle flipped over the bag of money to free Dash, the Jynx stuck her hand into her eyes. Noelle stumbled back, surprised and blinked some, while leaving Dash in the bag once more.
More blinking, then she stared in awe at how she could see the PD and Dash under the bag. "WHOA THIS IS SUPER COOL~" Noelle walked around a bit, seeing what other hidden things she could find. Then the Jynx asked if she could join their team. Noelle stopped playing around and got serious. She didn't really want this rude Jynx to be on her team, but she didn't want to be mean, but then shrugged; it had to be one or the other. "Truthfully you're kinda mean and if you want to join just because of the clothes then I'm gonna have to say no." Noelle nodded as the Jynx left.
Next, Storm and Norman poked their head out of the ocean and asked if they could join the team. Shortly after that, Tessa came up on the island, and added a Big Pearl to the rewards, as well as a request to join. Noelle sat on the ground, thinking long and hard about who to take, because they could only issue one badge for this mission. "Tessa, come with us." The Milotic smiled and slithered over to Dash to uncover the bag. "Storm and Norman, although I am very thankful of you guys, our team room isn't very... water Pokemon friendly. Tessa here will probably get... a pond or SOMETHING in our room but we can't really fit a whole tank in there. Sorry." They frowned, but understood. "And besides, we could only take one of you. You need each other and the Ocean Dwellers need both of you." Noelle thanked them again and they departed back to the Ocean Dwellers who were waiting just beneath the surface.
"Well. It's time to go home. I NEED A NAP~" Dash fell back onto the sand and Tessa carried Dash somehow to the boat that would take them back to the guild.
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Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2011 5:18 pm
This totals up to about 16 pages in OpenOffice, which means it should total up sufficiently in MSWord. Probably around 18~19 pages, which is enough. Tolin appeared on the beach alone. He had simply appeared out of thin air, with only a small crack to punctuate his appearance. The gemstone around his neck made it much easier to make the long trips much more quietly. Ripping apart space the way teleport did was always loud, but it was louder when you were inaccurate. Those that had it naturally, or that had adequate focus and talent, were quiet or even near-silent.
Tolin glanced up at the sky as the sun peeked out at him. A thin cover of clouds masked the sky, with a faint wind and a few precious holes letting the sunlight through. He looked down towards the docks. “Good, the ship's in.” He was in luck. It was difficult to tell whether it had just docked or not, but he had time to get on. They were still boarding, too. The crew was hauling up a crate of air beads for the island. Tolin walked towards the ship only to be greeted by a Poliwhirl just short of boarding.
“Ticket?” Tolin shifted to his side and lowered his scythe, making the dark-green band and badge on his right arm apparent. It was the emblem of the sun, with each end pointing in a cardinal direction coloured a deep red along with the center. It was a sign of his position within the guild. Not only was he a member, but he had advanced in rank a full four times; he was one of the highest in the guild.
“P... Pardon me, sir!” The Poliwhirl recognized the badge quickly. It was common enough to have guild brats come on with the low ranks, but the higher ranks were rare. This was the first champion to come to docks in years. “Please, go right ahead! I will inform the captain immediately.” The Poliwhirl sprinted up to the ship and straight for the captain.
Tolin walked up behind him and was quickly met with a voice. “Guild business or personal?” The Politoed was eyeing him carefully from the railings along the ship, trying to size him up. It wasn't his first time seeing a Champion rank and it wouldn't be his last. The signs of middle-age showed clearly on his skin along with various small, ovular scars. No doubt they were bite marks. He wore a deep, navy blue cap on his head that marked him as the captain of the ship.
“It's for the guilds, but personal. I'm here to track someone down, but he doesn't know I'm coming. I shouldn't cause your ship any problems, don't worry.” That was what the captain was worried about, in all likelihood. Big fish meant big sharks and he had more on the boat than his crew and a single guild member. The ferry also took on tourists as a means of income in order to help sustain the pub and docks.
The Politoed nodded. “Just don't go ********' with the Lugia down there. These seas are already bad enough to navigate, if you whip him into a frenzy they'll be impossible.” That's what Champions did. They ******** with legendaries.
Tolin nodded, restraining his laughter and any sense of sarcasm. That's what he was here for, after all. Desmond. The Lugia he had nearly killed all those decades ago. As the ship pushed off and began to sail, his mind drifted back to that time many, many years ago.
*****
Mariana pushed the door open by walking through it backwards. A Venomoth was cradled in her arms, apparently injured and unconscious. “Serrin, please clear a bed! Mel, could you get some tea? Alan, go get some cushions and a first-aid kit.” Mariana shouted out expert orders, setting everyone in the team to work except for Tolin. The four of them had been enjoying some collective reading. It was something that they shared; they would all start reading the same book at the same time and they would discuss it occasionally. Subtle clues, interesting moments, character development... it got put on the table. It was a nice way to spend time together. Mariana typically didn't participate, though. Everyone but Alan enjoyed reading before they joined the team, but he quickly changed. Mariana just never enjoyed it as much as everyone else did.
The rest of the team quickly set to their respective tasks. Serrin quickly cleared the bed. Alan took some soft comforters out of the closet and set off to get the first-aid kit. Melissa was setting a kettle to boil. Tolin was without anything to do, so he walked towards his Chansey teammate and quickly inspected her injured charge. “...She seems fine. There's a few cuts and quite a bit of bruising, but nothing really bad. Does she have any internal injuries?”
Mariana shook her head. “No, she just seems to be tired and battered. She's terrified of something, though. She came at me practically screaming about how her family was going to die and we were all dead if we didn't do something.” The Chansey didn't seem at all shaken by the event. It was hardly the first time it had happened and it wouldn't be the last. Since she always stayed in town when the rest of the team was out on missions (which was quite often) the one who had to deal with people knocking on their door with a request was her. Whether it was dire or simplistic, she was the one who had to talk down people both timid and terrified.
A voice called out from the kitchen. “Something for pain, then?”
“Please. Judging from the number of injuries, she'll have a hard time thinking clearly when she wakes up.”
“Okay~”
“The bed's ready. Alan should have the first-aid ready in a second, just come in and set her down.” Mariana hurried towards Serrin and placed her charge on the bed. Alan returned shortly after and with help from Mariana quickly began to bandage and disinfect the Venomoth's wounds wherever possible.
It didn't take Melissa long to come in with the tea. “How is she?”
“She should be fine. I'm going to wake her up though, it seemed urgent.” The rest of the team quietly started to object, but they were too late. The Chansey leaned over to the Venomoth's ear and did as she always did. “HEY!”
The Venomoth awoke with a look of fear. She was terrified. But as much as she struggled, she couldn't move. The bandages and blankets kept her completely restrained whether or not she wanted. “Relax, you made it here. I'm just going to tilt you up and give you something to drink. It'll make you feel better, alright?” The bug nodded as much as her physique would allow. Mariana slipped a hand in under her head and pushed her upwards then brought the tea cup to her lips. “Now, why don't you tell us what's wrong?”
“...My forest was invaded yesterday.” The venomoth said it clearly, but without explanation.
Alan shifted out of his seat and moved towards her so he could be seen as he spoke. “Who invaded?”
The Venomoth did not speak for some time, her eyes seeming to dart around with uncertainty. “I think... they came from the west. From the mountain. Towards the sea.”
The group glanced at one another as a collective, but it was the leader who spoke what they were thinking. “No. We won't mediate conflicts between large groups. It's not our place to do so.” Serrin was the one who had made the rule and everyone else agreed. They weren't there to be a personal army. They dealt with criminals, scoundrels threats and dangerous problems. They didn't deal with two families fighting each other, or two forests, or anything like that.
“No, that's... They...” The Venomoth squirmed uncomfortably under the blankets.
Tolin was getting mildly frustrated. “Come on, come on. What is it? Just spit it out.” Although he had changed much since he joined the team and would change much still later in life, he was still impatient with strangers at the time.
“...They said that they were chased out.”
This did pique the team's interest. Border wars between different groups were none of their business, but if a small group was chasing people out of their homes then it did become an issue. Something that was actually worth their time. Something that was worth dealing with, as rare as it was. Serrin hopped up on to the bed in order to make direct eye contact. “What chased them out? And, how many?” The tone of “invasion” had suggested a very large number. If it was just a few, then it became their business again because it was dealing with criminals. But otherwise...
“They... They said...”
Tolin's patience began to snap. “Just say it. Say it already!”
The Venomoth flinched, prompting a silencing glare from both Mariana and Melissa. Serrin, however, remained fixated. “...They said a Lugia showed up. They said he would come here next.”
“Oh god...” Melissa sighed. She didn't even need to look to see Tolin's face.
“Sounds like fun to me.” Tolin's face split into a wide grin that was quickly met by Serrin.
“Yep. Sounds fun.” Serrin and Tolin's gazes turned to Melissa who let out another sigh, already knowing that she wasn't likely to be able to stop either of them from heading out.
“Fine. Let's go. Start packing some supplies, we're off in twenty minutes.” The team shifted quickly into a storm of packing and preparations. Berries and maps were packaged and put into a bag for transport. An assortment of herbs was stuffed into a jar, no doubt for some purpose or another.
The Venomoth began to sob. “Thank you... Thank you so much.”
Mariana merely patted her on the head. “Nonsense, dear. This is what we do.”
It didn't take them very long to reach the mountain. It was only a day's worth of walking, although they chose to camp out midway to avoid getting too close to the mountain. It wouldn't do to get spotted by their target while they were napping.
The mountain was flush with life, but unfortunately without the sentient kind. It was entirely devoid of other pokemon. Plenty of plants still stood, although many had been broken (no doubt when the residents fled) but that was all. Trees, shrubs and corpses.
Many, many corpses. All over the mountain. Corpses that were torn to shreds as if a fine knife had cut them a thousand times. For the team it wasn't particularly a sickening sight. Death was something all of them had seen time and time again. Hundreds of times. Thousands of times, in the case of the two Ivysaurs. It only bore in the significance of their task; they would have to kill, or be killed. It was finally at the top that they found him.
And then Tolin started feeling nauseous. “I... really hate boats.” Though isn't this shaking a little too much...? The waves were rocky, to say the least. If the Scyther hadn't had the utmost confidence in the design of the vessel, he would have thought it close to capsizing. He walked towards the captain who sat at a fairly modern command post that allowed him to monitor the ship's status. Besides the stereotypical wheel, a few machines were present to monitor pressure, wind direction and strength. “Are these waves unusual?”
The Politoed closed his eyes for a moment before looking back at one of his crewmen. “Skip, take the wheel for a moment.” He brushed past Tolin and continued towards the tank in the middle of the ship. A sole Magikarp sat there. “Hey, Miles. Mind hopping over the side and checking the currents? They're a bit active today.” The Magikarp nodded and with a sudden burst of speed flew out of the tank and over the side of the ship.
The two old men leaned over the side and looked down. The ship was hardly extraordinary by any means, though it was hardly small. It was only a few hour ride, so the need for extra floors was non-existent. There was simply an extra “bottom” floor and a slightly raised backside that served as basic storage and command respectively. They were at least five or six feet over the water. Five or six feet over the pool of blood that pulsed upwards against the surface, a strong spike of red against the green sea. “s**t!” The captain flung off his hat and dived over the side after his crew member.
Tolin began sprinting across the deck. He tore down the stairs and into the small cargo hold by shoving his way past the Poliwhirl from earlier. His scythe plunged into the crate, abusing a shard of the Gem's power to punch open a large hole. He scooped out one of the necklaces of Air Beads as the Poliwhirl began to protest. “Hey, hey! You can't do that!”
Tolin ran up the stairs, merely shouting back a response before he was too far to be heard. “You'll thank me later!” He ran over to where the Politoed had dived in and did the same. The cold of the water subsumed any warmth, leaving the Scyther freezing and wet.
And alert. The Carvanha that came for him was struck down in an instant, adding substantially more red to the water. Tolin's movement in water had a single, unusual boon that his physiology had entirely unintended. He could barely swim and his wings were entirely useless, but his blades were thin. So thin that they could cut apart the water. He was quite nearly a sitting duck, but he wasn't without his fangs.
Or he would have been, normally. He had hoped not to use it, but he did have a way. His body tilted and one leg was held straight and locked. His own psychic force built under his foot, pushing him along. It wasn't a speed he considered to be “great”, but considering what he would normally have it was several times advanced the norm.
Using the ball of psychic, he pushed himself towards the captain who looked groggy as the cuts over his body seeped out into the water. Tolin had been lucky diving in, since the entire group of enemies had already swarmed the unfortunate man. They were even more unfortunate in this regard when his scythes, one completed by Psychic and the other sharpened, ran through the underbellies of a pair of Carvanha.
He turned quickly towards the lone Sharpedo that had only begun to move towards him. Tolin's body spun backwards, sending his enemy just above him. Tolin's scythe made a quick, narrow cut along his underbelly.
The Sharpedo began to panic as the pain overwhelmed him. The cut allowed small amounts of blood to spurt out and water to pour into his body. The pressure squeezed his organs, forcing him into unconsciousness and eventually letting them slip out.
Tolin halted his spinning after the first rotation and began to swam over to the Politoed with one scythe held up as a warning. “I can kill all of you. Don't test me, I'm not in a good enough mood to leave you alive.” The carnivorous fish quickly backed off and parted, leaving an opening for the pair to head towards the ship and catch up. Tolin placed a Scythe on his back and began to push the both of them forward.
He glanced back to insure that it wasn't some kind of ploy. A sneak attack to kill them while they were off-guard. It wasn't. The remaining Carvanha had turned on their four dead allies and had started eating them.
He caught up to the boat in less than a minute. His head came above the water, and the splash of air against his face and lungs was icy. It also held back his voice, which was barely a splutter. The moment he was far enough up to talk, the air beads stopped functioning and he began choking on the water that was left in the back of his mouth.
He dove back under the water and swam ahead of the boat, his unconscious charge still held close with his scythe. His mind stretched up to the ship and settled on a winch that held up a small lifeboat. A bit of mental stress was applied and the mechanism snapped, sending the lifeboat hurtling to water level with a pronounced splash. Tolin let the boat come to him and quickly tossed the Politoed on, forcing himself downwards in the process.
He made one last check for any enemies before popping back up and clawing his way onto the lifeboat. The Poliwhirl who was cranking the winch nearly stumbled forwards as the extra weight attached itself to the lifeboat. A second crew member came over and together they pulled the ship up. “Hey, are you okay!?”
Tolin simply hopped out of the boat with a slight buzz from his wings and planted his foot firmly on the crank. The two Poliwhirls looked at him, apparently confused, until he spoke. “I'll hold it. Go get your captain.”
Both Poliwhirls hurried onto the lifeboat quickly and picked up their captain. Tolin braced his foot against the crank as best he could, using a psychic pressure to further his ability to hold the well over 200 pounds that was in the boat. The two grabbed their captains by his hands and his legs and hurriedly hauled him back onto the ship. Tolin's mind let go before his foot did, sending his leg hurtling upwards as the crank spun, bringing the lifeboat back to the water. The Scyther gracelessly fell backwards, landing on his behind.
He sat there, just for a moment. His breathing was hard and shallow, the result of too significant an exertion and much too suddenly. “At least I can fight like I used to.” I'm still not as fast as I used to be... but at least I can complete my scythes again. Tolin, still very much ready to fight whatever approached him, nearly spun around when he felt something soft weigh against his shoulders.
He stopped very quickly when he felt the subtle warmth that was still within the fluffy coat. It was too small for him any way you looked at it, from the sleeves too small to go over his scythes to the buttons that weren't nearly close enough to fit over his torso. But it fit over his shoulders and gave him a much-needed warmth that his wet body was quickly losing in the faint sunlight. A lone Gardevoir was standing behind him in silence, her hands clasped together and her head dipped low. “Thank you.”
*****
“Had a bit of a scuffle, hmmm?” The Azumarill watched the ship unload from the shore. A few of the passengers came off, but most prevalent was the crate and the unconscious Politoed. He still hadn't woken up in spite of the time they had spent on the rest of the trip.
Tolin stepped off the ship just behind the cargo. “The ship was attacked en route, one of the crew members was killed.”
The Azumarill shook her head. “Oh my, oh my. Come in, then. You can rest here for a little while. Go in and set him on the bed, I'll handle the ship for now.” She stepped out of her small hut. It was simple in design,being of only moderate size and made of wood. She strode up onto the boat and began speaking loudly in order to take control of the situation.
The four Poliwhirl carried the crate and the unconscious man inside of the shack with Tolin following close behind. Both were set down, the former on the floor and the latter on a nice soft bed. Tolin simply sat down and leaned back against the wall. It didn't take long for his consciousness to fade.
Nor did it take long to return. His eyes were open quickly, his mind already alert and fully functioning. The captain had woken up and was sitting up in his bed, his mind groggy while it tried to find where it had left off. Tolin spoke to him, trying to bring his mind back. “You were unconscious when I got into the water. I chased them off and pulled you out of the water, we're at the island right now.”
The Politoed nodded. “Right, yes... The ship was a bit rocky. You came and complained, so I had Skip take over and I sent Miles in to check it out. There was... blood, so I went in right away.” He rubbed his head absent-mindedly as his memories came back. With a twinge of pain and a flash of clarity, his eyes opened wide and he stared straight at the Scyther. “What about Miles!? Is he alright!?”
Tolin merely shook his head. “By the time I got there, I couldn't even see his corpse. I don't know what happened to him.” There weren't even bones left. It was possible he got carried off by a Sharpedo, but if he had he definitely wasn't alive.
The Politoed covered his face with his hands and hunched over. “I... see.” The room fell to silence from a minute. “Thank you for helping.”
The Azumarill came back inside of the room and, noticing the awake captain, rushed to his side. “I'll be leaving, then.” Tolin stood back up and walked out of the room.
It was only a few seconds until he heard the sobs. “Miles... Miles is dead.”
The Azumarill's voice quivered, although she held her composure as best she could. “I know, John. I know.”
*****
Tolin stepped down, into the algae. It wouldn't be easy finding Desmond, but he was here somewhere.
The coral in front of him was a good a place to start as any. It was a bright red with a speckled mix of colours dotting it, whether it was discolouration of the coral or something growing out of it. Either way, tunnels went in and out of the coral which seemed to stretch on endlessly.
The coral formed a decently-sized tunnel. It was clearly artificial in design, but the many many years it had been since it was originally carved had led it to take on a much more natural aesthetic. It was still well-used however, as the tunnel itself was a clear-cut circle that was still maintained.
A considerable amount of walking took him around twists and turns. He reached a split, one going forward and one left. But it was a tad odd. The one in front of him simply abruptly ended in a light blue wall dotted with only a pair of red circles.
And then it shifted slightly. Towards him. Tolin quickly looked to his left to find that the same wall had appeared there. A few backwards steps turned into a full psychic-aided run as the walls surged forwards faster and faster. The passage up ahead had another, so turn left. There was one to his right here, to keep going. Another one up ahead, take this turn.
Until he finally ended up in a dead-end. He had been worked there by the constant appearances of the Tentacruel that blocked off each passage. The one in the lead flipped over, unblocking the tunnel but revealing a set of tentacles ready to strike.
So Tolin did what Tolin did best; Tolin fought. Bringing his speed up in the water wasn't hard. Not with the pendant. The tentacle that lashed out at him was the queue that the title of “hunter” had changed sides. He stepped softly to the side and brought both scythes around in a scissor motion. One pulled the tentacle up while the other sliced through it. His prey gurgled in pain until the scythe punctured one of his eyes.
The next one wasn't much harder. Tolin shifted past his first kill and bent downwards under the accurate strike that came for him. His feet left the ground as his body twirled, only to be righted when the blade struck unerringly into the second Tentacruel's body. He pressed against his arms, forcing his feet back onto the ground. His scythe came out and he turned to face the next four.
Each one shared a similar fate to the one before. Tentacles were cut off. Eyes were gouged. Bellies were sliced clean open and life became a precious commodity as each one tried to fight back, the fear growing within them as they realized they had attempted to hunt a predator. But it was too late. They were too obstinate to flee, or perhaps they were merely unable to turn around. Each one took a deep slash and simply drifted up towards the ceiling as their blood leaked out.
Tolin sighed. “Well, I guess this place is useless. I doubt anyone else was living here, considering those six were fairly keen on eating me. At most I'd probably be lucky to find a skeleton or two.” The way they had moved certainly suggested it wasn't their first time trying to kill someone who strayed into their domain. This entire reef was probably a complicated trap they had set up. Which was unfortunate, because it was the only distinct thing on the landscape. He was searching blind now.
That quickly became the least of his worries. A heavy, monstrous crash shook the coral mere moments later. Small bits of coral broke free from the massive maze and fell down. He was quick to leave. A few steps and a good jump later and he was climbing up through a tunnel, his arms stabbing in and out of the coral as if he were climbing an icy mountain.
“s**t.” If it wasn't for the fact that the maze was quickly collapsing behind him, he would have gone back in immediately. He was tempted to anyways.
The moment he exited, he saw what was causing the quakes. A massive Gyarados. The sea itself was empty in it's wake, and the only pokemon to be found was the lone Rescue team leader. Everything else had no doubt already fled as the Scyther had begun to. The blood must've drawn him here.
So massive was the serpent that it took him a moment to notice the bug. But the moment he did, the waters began to churn; a massive roar sent out ripples in the water, sending the unprepared Tolin hurtling away.
Tolin's mind chanted quietly to him. “Flight or fight”. Well, even if I think that it's not like I can run. The coral isn't safe, teleporting just means dealing with him later and I don't swim as fast as he does. Which left only battle.
Tolin stood his ground. He quickly found the best place he could to fight. Somewhere flat and with traction. It was there that he waited for the charge. With his blades up and ready, he watched the Gyarados spin around trying to find him. The moment it did, it went straight for him as he had hoped.
Tolin's body suddenly jerked to the side at the last moment. And, just as suddenly, it stopped a hair's breadth from the beast's side. He couldn't manoeuvre properly in the water, which meant he had to do it forcibly with psychic. Of course, the result was the same when he ran one of his blades along his enemy's side, not that he did much besides scratch at it's scales.
The Gyarados's effort was much more successful. A flick of the tail came at the end, too fast and sudden to be avoided. The small movement on the part of the massive creature was much more than was necessary to send the bug hurtling through the water, although thankfully well out of reach of his enemy.
Tolin coughed as he tried to regain his breath. “No good, huh?” A direct attack was out of the question. Which meant that he had to attack a soft spot or try to cripple him. Either way it meant getting near the front end or the back end, and neither was a preferred place to be.
But the front end was better. He could meet the attack head on. If he tried to go for the tail, he was much more likely to get injured. Well, injured without benefit, at least. It would be hard to cut his tail enough to prevent him from steering.
So it was the face. Tolin quickly balanced himself with one scythe forward and the other back. He was ready to jump the moment it came for him. And come for him it did, with it's simplistic and brutish charge. And so, Tolin jumped.
Straight into it's mouth. His scythe hooked into the creatures nose, acting as a lifeline to hold him outside. Gyarados had one fatal flaw that made them particularly weak against his type; they required precision. A Gyarados has only four teeth, each in a set and on the sides. Should they miss, the beast has no choice but to simply swallow. And that usually works fine; even the most dangerous residents of the sea aren't strong enough to do anything from inside.
But Tolin's blades certainly were. If he was swallowed, he might die. Or he might cut the insides up so much that there was no choice. Death or vomit. Or both.
Not that that was his goal. Jumping into the stomach of his enemy didn't strike him as a brilliant idea, even if it probably would work. No, he liked right where he was; his legs inside and his torso out. More importantly, both of his scythes were still outside; one had stabbed into soft flesh in order to hold on, and the other was primed.
“You have a choice! Let me go in peace and I won't have to kill you!”
The Gyarados wasn't entertained by his proposition. Not that it mattered. The left scythe came back, primed with a long and thin psychic blade. It was abnormally long and it's existence drained the pendant, but he needed to strike properly. He wasn't exactly in a position of good leverage; without the extra range he could not hit.
So the psychic blade sunk deep into the serpent's eye. The resulting roar of pain sent Tolin flying. His concentration was shattered and the blade dissolved with it. The scythe he had planted in the soft flesh lost it's grip, or so he thought. When he came back to his senses, he quickly scraped the flesh off. A piece of the Gyarados's nose had come with him.
Which, unfortunately, meant he couldn't do that again. Judging from the small flakes of skin and nose along with the blood that poured outwards from the wound, there wasn't enough left to be used as a hold again.
Well, not that he needed to. The Gyarados was panicking. His eyes were constantly darting about as he assessed his loss of vision. He was angry, but above all else he was terrified. He had never been hurt. You didn't evolve from a Magikarp by getting hurt. If you got hurt as a Magikarp, chances were you were someone's lunch.
And the terror only fed into that anger. But he wasn't unchanged. A new tactic surfaced; Hyper Beam. His large maw opened and the small white ball began to grow. Tolin braced, leaping to the side as soon as he could. The water around the beam which he so narrowly avoided began to boil.
And it continued. The Gyarados refused to relent and refused to close the distance. Tolin had to keep dodging. The constant abuse of the pendant began to tax his mind and break down his concentration. Although the pendant had juice in it to spare (he refused to use it more than was necessary from the moment he got it) his mind couldn't take much more. Likely because he wasn't using the pendant to it's fullest; using only his own psychic taxed his physical body and his mental well-being.
Both were breathing hard. Both were tired. The Gyarados continued to bleed, dying the water around him a faint red. But unlike Tolin, he could still fight properly. He could still fight efficiently. And he could tell that he was winning. He got cocky.
He charged forward for the last time. Tolin didn't have the focus or the energy left to dodge. He was merely hit. The two continued onwards, the momentum of the larger keeping the smaller stuck to his face. He swam forwards as quickly as he could towards a rock. A large rock that would let him hammer the little bug to death.
Tolin was less than cooperative. He couldn't get away. Couldn't get inside; it's mouth was closed. He couldn't stab it's other eye from here, which left him only one option. “Turn.” His right scythe shot down, cutting the fin on the side of it's face off. It suddenly jerked to the side, narrowly missing the rock face.
And there it was. The thing that finally ended the fight, although neither of them had intended it. Tolin hadn't even realized it was there; he had had only a vague realization of what his enemy intended. But it proved convenient when it swept him away. A deep current cut between the rocks and pulled him downwards. Both of them were caught in it.
Tolin was lucky. He was small and fairly light. He stayed in the middle of the current, which swept around rocks and coral. The Gyarados was not. He was big, heavy and raging. His constant movements sent him thrashing within the current itself as he tried to simultaneously dive deeper for his prey and resist to escape. His body smashed against rocks and scraped against the coral.
Tolin merely lost himself to a sense of vertigo. The current spun him around and pulled him sharply in every direction. He didn't know where he was, or which way was up or down. All he knew is that he was no longer under attack, and if nauseous he was comparatively safe.
His eyes closed as he simply tried to enjoy the ride. When he finally came to his senses, he was dizzy and tired but he didn't have any visible injuries. There was sand under him. He could still feel the current faintly pushing against his back. A large dome of coral was above him, with no exits being apparent.
Suddenly, the current seemed to stop and something pressed up against Tolin's throat. Something huge. Something big enough to force his head back and all the way up, forcing the air beads back into his throat. “Ha ha. Very funny.” Tolin's tone was dry.
“Hahaha! I thought it was funny. It's a bit like old times, isn't it?” The Lugia's wing pulled back, leaving Tolin to turn around to face him. “So what brings you to the neighbourhood? I haven't seen you in years, Tolin. Though if you don't stop sending out huge pulses of psychic like that, it won't be very hard to find you.” He smiled.
Tolin gave a half-smile in return. He wasn't exactly here for a social visit, as much as he would prefer to be. “Business, I'm afraid. I need you to honour your pact.”
Desmond's smile soured immediately. “Business, huh? What do you need help with? Are some idiots threatening to burn down a forest or something?”
“I need you to help me kill Arceus.”
Desmond stared at him for a moment before bursting out into laughter. “Hahahahaha! That's pretty funny. When'd you get a sense of humour like that? But, seriously, what do you need?” Tolin simply stared back at him, silent. “You are kidding, right?” Tolin continued to stare. “Ah, s**t. You're serious aren't you?” Tolin nodded. “Then let's take this conversation somewhere a bit more dry.”
The both of them reappeared a moment later on top of the water. A small column of the sea that stretched between the two of them had teleported with them and promptly splashed down, hitting the psychic wall that he had erected at water level. “Now, what's going on that you need to kill Arceus for?”
Tolin spoke without hesitation. He had long since considered this conversation from start to end. “The world is ending and I'm trying to save it.”
Desmond stared blankly at him for a moment. “The world's ending?”
Tolin nodded. “What do you know of the mortal world at large right now? A lot has changed since you were last awake, so it's important that I understand what you actually know.”
Desmond turned over slowly in midair as he thought. “If it's world-ending stuff... Some brat got the god of destruction stuck in him. There's some Weavile breaking things. There's seven guilds now, one inactive and one supervisory. There's plenty of chaos here and there, but nothing else.” He smiled as he turned over and caught Tolin's surprised look. “When you're sitting in the sea for a few decades you get rather bored. I started scanning minds as a pass-time. Only enough to catch surface thoughts, but that was all I needed.”
“Ah.” Well, that certainly made things easier. It would've been hard to explain society at it's core, and it certainly would've taken more time than he had to spare. “Well then. Here's the full truth. The God of Destruction is actually a part of Arceus. Suecra. One of the three. The other is Creaus. Arceus sits on a glass throne in his tower trying to hold together the balance, but his power is fragmented. He's too weak to hold the universe together, so it's slowly breaking down. It won't be long until it collapses, and I'm trying to stop that.”
“Hmm...” Desmond resumed his slow turns as he thought about it. It was a tall order, to save the world. And a tall tale, perhaps? “So then... What are you going to do about it? This story sounds insane and the notion that you could do anything to fix it, should it even be true, is even moreso.” He was just a bug, after all. A strong bug. A very strong bug, to have nearly killed a Lugia. But that was all.
Tolin smiled. “I'm going to kill them. All three of them. I'm going to slaughter Creaus, take Suecra and murder Arceus. I'll kill his soldiers which hold a fragment of his power. And then I'll force them all back together with my own hands. Arceus will be back to he was once, entire universes in the past. He'll be strong enough to repair the balance and bring us back from the brink.” There was no other way. If it was not now, it was never; the mirror would likely never exist again.
“So we're going to kill a bunch of demigods, slaughter the trinity that created existence and then we're going to blend well?” Tolin's raised brow was quickly met with a chuckle and an explanation. “I skimmed your mind. The elite, right? You've already got three of the pendants, but there's plenty more to go. You might not need them, but not having them means fighting Arceus and his minions at the same time.”
Tolin nodded. “Will you help me, then?”
Desmond twirled slightly in midair. “Honestly, it sounds like complete bullshit. It's almost impossible to believe. It's even more impossible to believe that some random Scyther I met decades ago would somehow find himself stuck into it. You're not a guild leader, you aren't the leader of a clan or tribe. You don't have any special powers, and although strong what made your legend was your teamwork. You certainly aren't someone to be in the position you claim you are.” Tolin was a normal guy. Strong, fast and fairly smart. But otherwise he was perfectly normal. He couldn't shoot fire out of his eyes. He wasn't especially wealthy and he didn't have great political power. He wasn't even a master of a hundred abilities.
Nothing set him apart. He was, in the end, what any exploration member could become. Strong and experienced. Well, it helped that he was borderline suicidal as well. “But then...” Desmond felt his throat faintly. Even after all the years, he could still feel the slight bump of scar tissue that ran across his neck. “If you'd twitched wrong back then, I'd be dead now. So it's not like I have much of a choice; I can't really refuse someone who spared my life, can I?”
Tolin laughed. “You'd be a bit of a b*****d if you did. So then, I'll have your help?”Carvanha x3 Sharpedo x1 Tentacruel x6 Gyarados x1
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Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2011 2:40 pm
[Posting this here. Cysic will be PMed his other rewards later when I have time to figure them all out. For now he has his Legendary as this mission is passed with flying colors and Gyarados bits.]
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